want2know – you’re right. My memory played false with me. It is indeed The Lost Missile:
Here’s another bad one:
Riders to the Stars – another wonder from Curt Siodmak, aided and abetted by Ivan Tors. Our missiles keep burning up when trying to leave the atmosphere, but it’s known that meteorites can survive re-entry. Therefore, they figure, meteorites must have some special coating that keeps them from burning up. But the ones that land don’t have this – it gets blown off them or something during impact.
The only way to find out what this is , decide the powers-that-be , is to catch a falling meteorite in flight, then analyze it. They build special planes with scoops on the front, and send pilots up after meteorites. They finally succeed, and they analyze the meteorite to build successful spaceships.
This is dumb on so many levels that it’s hard to begin to pick it apart. So I won’t. Just stupid, and never seen on TV (or anywhee else).
Great link, Miss Mapp ! Really took me back!Personally, I think “The Creeping Terror” should be much higher (or lower, depending on your POV), and “The Brainiac” takes the cake for human-sized monsters. Let me say again, it does my heart good to talk to other fans of this genre. I only wish I’d discovered the SDMB sooner. I am HOOKED!
“Them !” was always one of my favorites , as one I think was called “Dinosaurus” , I can only remember bits and pieces of it , but I was a little girl obsessed with dinosaurs , and I loved this one . “The Valley of Gwangi” is another favorite , but it was a 60’s movie , and not B/W , so it doesn’t qualify .
I am proud to say I have been stalking Straight Dope for months , and this is my first post !
Don’t worry, it only hurts for the first few keystrokes! Seriously, though, check out the prehistoric monster flicks mentioned in the previous posts (Giant Behemoth is my favorite) if dinosaurs are your thing. Remember, the Japanese made Godzilla after seeing Beast From 20,000 Fathoms!
THE BRAINIAC was gonna be my contribution! I actually was delighted when I found that in a DVD 3-on-1 disc Cheapy Horror films! The movie was actually creepy when I was a wee lad. Still fun!
A real classic, B&W but early 1960s- was the Mario Bava directed, Barbara Steele starring BLACK SUNDAY (aka MASK OF THE DEMON aka MASK OF SATAN). Jinkies!
wait, are you saying that it was so dumb that it’s never shown anymore, or that it’s so dumb that it was NEVER shown on TV? because i’m pretty certain that i saw it as part of my monster-loving childhood.
the surviving pilot crashed his plane but survived to gaze, with the rest of the rescuing scientific team, at the several little meteors displayed in the opened capture bin in the plane’s wreckage. right? (for some reason, my memory shows them as being kinda sparkle-y, to boot. wierd.
oh, and Pushkin? believe it. that movie was almost physically painful to watch. the mole/dogs are so bad-obvious, you may fall off your sofa laughing.
I’m saying that it’s not shown on TV anymore. I, too, saw this on TV in my wasted youth. I suspect that it would be so boring to modern watchers, and the science is so full-tilt whacko, that there’s no audience for this anymore.
Curiously enough, I saw two copies of the novelization by Siodmak this past summer. I shoulda picked one up. Dinosaurus is another gen from my wasted yourh, but it was early 1960s, and in color, so I never included it. I originally saw it at a Drive-in in a thunderstorm, which is an interesting situation.
Some of the animation is great (and showed up yeatrs later on TV series like “It’s About Time”), but they had so small a budget that they eked out their special effects with non-animated puppetry of the models (watch for the scene of the T. Rex “rampaging” through the forest. It’s clear that someone is holding him from underneath like a muppet.).
but the coolest thing is the climactic fight between the good guy and the T. Rex. The good guy is using a steam shovel to fight the dinosaur, much as Ripley fought the Alien Queen in Aliens. I’ll bet Cameron saw this film as a kid.
I’ve got a copy of this on VHS, but I haven’t seen it on DVD yet.
